Wednesday, February 27, 2013

While in Puerto Rico, a good friend enjoyed a Torano cigar and
felt so strongly about it that he called me as he was smoking it to recommend
it. That conversation paired with a well-timed email from my friends over at
tampahumidor.com announcing a deal on Toranos was all it took for me to take
the plunge and order a box of Signature Robustos.

It was a loooong day; an early doctor’s appointment, two school
science fair visits, and after school activities with all three. The wife was
having a girls’ night, so I got the privilege of trying to get them all to bed.
Eventually, I got to sit down to relax. I noticed Sopranos was playing on HBO. Awesome!
Watching some of my favorite Hollywood gangsters smoking nice fat cigars, I knew
when this episode was over it would be time to break out one of my newly
delivered Torano Signature 5 X 52 cigars.

I opened my humidor and grabbed a cigar, poured myself a
glass of Glenmorangie Artein Private Selection, neat, and went outside to sit on
my stoop to enjoy the mild weather with my old standby, jazzradio.com.

I took the cigar from the cellophane wrapper, placed it
under my nose and took a nice long sniff. Ahh, it was a nice earthy smell.

The cigar has a nice chocolate color with minimal veins. I clipped the cap and took my usual pre-lighting draw. It had a very smooth open draw (and no sawdust in my mouth).

I used a long wooden match to light the end and that’s all
it took. The first few draws contained hints of cacao and then a nutty flavor
became prevalent. The smoke was medium. I tasted champagne as the smoke left my
mouth. The first third was a flavor jamboree.

The ash, with its brown, grey and streaks of black held
strong almost to the halfway point before it fell. That was when the smoke kicked
up a notch and the cigar became sweet and spicy. The burn got a little uneven,
but not enough for a touch up.

The final third had a finish of roasted coffee and leather as
the smoke mellowed. Magically, the burn evened out and I was able to smoke my cigar
until my fingers began to feel the heat.

This was a great smoke full of flavor from beginning to end. Put aside at least and hour yourself to enjoy this smoke. I’m glad that these were recommended to me and I’m looking forward to smoking and sharing these with my cigar smoking buddies. -February 26, 2013